Joe Robinson: Bald Guy, Marketer, Self-Improver.

Have you got certain bits of content you come back to cause they light a little fire underneath you and give you a boost?

I know I’ve got a few. One of the less typical ones is this video on getting into cars (as a hobby, not like physically getting inside them. I’m ok at that).

The video is by YouTube comedian Mike Tornabene, so as a fan of his work and of all things automotive I watched it within days of it coming out. 

About halfway through he talks about how to get started with anything intimidating, but especially creating things to put out into the world. In the nearly-6 years since, couple of lines in particular have lived in my head rent-free:

“you have to just start”

“you’re going to be fucking terrible at first, like in every respect… it’s gonna seem like you’re doing the wrong thing”

As much as I love cars and driving, this part of the video always resonated with me strongest. I was actively failing to create good content at the time and such direct empathy from someone I respected really scratched an itch.

Newly motivated, I got to work and applied that “just start” mindset to what I was already doing.

I stayed fairly awful but improved over time and got fairly consistent until my goals and interests changed. After 2 years, I went back to zero by choice and with some new skills to show for it. Go figure.

My next go round didn’t pick up where that one left, though. Somewhere after that first success I lost my way.

I must have stopped really hearing the words in the video and started interpreting it as a much plainer “work hard, be proactive” message. It stopped scratching the itch.

In mid-2020 I read some great advice on building a personal brand being a career game-changer. Read it, understood it, agreed with it. Yet by late 2022, I’d done effectively nothing to start building one.

These things are hard to reflect on after the fact. But I think mostly I was justifying to myself that I’d do better if I was more prepared, or could improve what I was already doing first.

At first it was that I was already on socials and doing a poor job of them, so I should fix that first. I’ve never been a short-form guy, but apparently I had to start with Twitter. Consistency-wise, it went how you’d imagine.

Then, I decided I should just jot things into Evernote as a placeholder for a real-life blog. Turns out it’s easy to neglect a blog which doesn’t actually exist. 1 ‘post’ in 13 months.

All the while, I was re-reading this advice each month. Re-understanding. Re-agreeing. Still no real start.

Writing is something that’s always come naturally to me, and I enjoy it. But the thought of having to find a place to host everything, the (tiny) cost of doing that, needing a stream of new ideas, all just seemed like a mountain to climb.

Maybe I was worried the novelty of a website would wear off, and wanted to build good habits first. A well-intentioned reason for bullshitting myself, but ultimately still bollocks.

Rather than just start, I’d looked at all the little components and decided I couldn’t even begin without a plan for absolutely everything. We’ve all been there, I like to tell myself.

Eventually I wrote enough stuff for our marketing agency’s blog that a personal website was the only missing piece, the only excuse left.

Right on cue, I still dreamed up one last roadblock for myself.

Without a good domain name, my head told me I couldn’t even build a foundation; I figured the desirable firstname-lastname ones would be taken so I’d steal moments on my commute or a quiet weekend to think up alternatives.

It wasn’t necessary and ultimately achieved nothing, like most procrastination. Like before, eventually it stopped making sense to wait and I finally just started.

Late on a Sunday night I set about building a website anyway and immediately found a domain which was available. That easy. I just had to start.

I winged writing this because if I’d waited to have a plan, nothing would have started. Instead, I’ve got about 750 words and still no plan.

“You have to just start.” Words to live by. Don’t wait 6 years like I did.